The Phoenix Suns waived forward Coleman Collins following Wednesday night’s preseason opener versus the Atlanta Hawks at US Airways Center. The Suns’ roster now stands at 15.
Shaqman and Robin
October 8, 2008 By
O’Neal says that Lopez already ranks among the top 12 centers in the league.
(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)
Last year it was the Amaré Stoudemire Project, this year it is the Robin Lopez Development Program. As Shaq heads into the twilight of his career, he sees himself as not just a player, but a mentor.
His newest protégé, a 7-0, 255-pound center that only spent two years in college, has already made quite an impression on the Big Aristotle. [Read more...]
Gearing up for the season
October 7, 2008 By
Barry Gossage / NBAE Photos
The Suns had an all-employee meeting this morning in the Casino Arizona Pavilion at US Airways Center. It’s something they usually do a few weeks before the season starts. With employees spread out through the entire arena, it’s hard to fathom how many people actually work for the team. But when we are all there together, you realize how many people it takes to keep an arena, 3 teams and many other events going on a daily basis.
Team President, Rick Welts, usually speaks to the employees and lets them know how the business is going, what the goals for the upcoming season are, etc. That still happened and it was great to hear his vision of the next year. After Welts spoke, we had several other people talk about the upcoming season including the All-Star Game that is coming to Phoenix in February 2009. We had some discussion of what that would bring to Phoenix and to US Airways Center. Then because of all of the changes that happened in the off-season, we also had some special guests. [Read more...]
NBA TV to Air Live Suns Practice
October 6, 2008 By
You can catch a peek of Lopez and Co. on NBA TV on Tuesday.
Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images
If you didn’t get a chance to attend the Suns’ public scrimmage Sunday, or you did, and you just haven’t seen enough of your beloved squad, tune in to NBA TV on Tuesday at 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a practice session.
A Work in Progress
October 4, 2008 By
We had our intra-squad scrimmage tonight. It was a little sloppy, but that’s to be expected with the first real scrimmage. It was good to get out there and try to work all the kinks out, and it was fun to get out there and play in front of a crowd. I think the fans had a good time and hopefully you enjoyed the game if you watched it online.
Speaking of having a good time, we had a team dinner last night which was cool. It was nice to sit down and just relax together after working hard all week. We initiated the rookies, too, making them do some embarrassing things.
10 points from the scrimmage
October 4, 2008 By
Suns.com team members Dan Hilton and Daniel Banks join forces to bring you ten random points about the Suns vs. Suns scrimmage on October 3.
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#1: Still Pretty Fast(Dan Hilton) |
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#2: Dancers Unveiled
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Suns vs Suns: 2008 Edition
October 3, 2008 By
It’s 4:30pm in Tucson and I’m sitting at the very top of the McKale Center, listening to Steve Koek and Adam Beechen start the annual podcast of the Phoenix Suns scrimmage. As I mentioned in a previous blog, this is my second time at the scrimmage and it’s really different this time. At the first scrimmage, I had the privilege of driving Al McCoy to the arena. I was surprised at how easy it was to get in when I was tagging along with Al. No one questioned me at all. I just followed Al and everything was ok.
This time was a little different. With the scrimmage starting at 5:00, we had to leave for the arena mid-afternoon to get here on time and make sure we got everything set up. Unfortunately, Suns.com’s Daniel Banks and I didn’t follow the example of our fearless leader, Jeramie McPeek, and we left a half hour later than he did. That put us right in the middle of early Friday rush hour traffic in Tucson. Not a good time.
After dropping Banks off at the arena to get started on setting everything up (and almost hitting Suns owner Robert Sarver with my car in my hurry to get to the parking garage – sorry, Mr. Sarver!), I found parking and was able to get inside. I was nervous that it wouldn’t be so easy to get in this time without Al as my escort. But the arena staff was very accommodating and helped me get in and find where I needed to be. [Read more...]
Campout stories
October 3, 2008 By
Daniel Banks/suns.com
My alarm began blaring at 6am Thursday morning, but I was already up. I couldn’t sleep knowing it was my turn to go to Tucson to attend Suns Training Camp 2008. I had so many questions: What would Coach Porter look like in action? How was the returning team dealing with the offseason changes? And is Boris growing his hair out to challenge Robin’s Fro-pez?
I did not get off to a great start. Rush hour and wrong turns marked my escape from Phoenix. We finally got out on the open road but the trouble followed me. We stopped for breakfast at a McDonald’s off the freeway and I ordered a sausage burrito for my co-worker and an Egg McMuffin for myself. Simple right? When I received my bag it contained one Sausage McMuffin. That was the type of day I was having. [Read more...]
Practice makes perfect
October 3, 2008 By
In the last blog post I wrote, I talked about how my second training camp has been easier and more fun than the first. A lot of that has to do with repetition, I think. The more you do something, the easier it becomes.
Which brings me to something else I noticed today in practice. The Suns added several new players to their roster in the off-season. Add a new coach into the mix as well and you have the potential for a rough start to the season if you’re not careful.
At tonight’s practice, the team worked on several plays. But they didn’t just do it once. They did it over and over again. And each time, the players got better at it. Each play has several different possibilities for getting a shot and they had to go over each nuance of the play. [Read more...]
Nash hopes to play beyond current contract
October 2, 2008 By
So I just returned from two days in Tucson and here are some early impressions of training camp:
- Terry Porter has instantly placed his imprint on this team with a no-nonsense approach which will make this a tougher team mentally and physically.
- Terry is drilling the team on defensive fundamentals and even putting the guys through defensive slide drills! (You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Shaq do the same drills we all did back in high school!)
- Matt Barnes was the offensive star of the scrimmage last night at St. Gregory’s High School. He has a very quick release and showed off his accuracy from faraway. [Read more...]
